AIRBUS SUPER TRANSPORTER
The "Beluga's " main cargo door is the biggest such structure ever built for an aircraft
a perfectly good runway."
An intensive study of the various air
craft options then began. At the heart of the
requirement was the need for an aircraft
big enough to carry every major Airbus
component, including the heaviest planned
in the near future: the wing for the expect
ed growth version of the A340.
Four aircraft were required, with an
option on a fifth, and the development time
was extremely limited — to just four years
— because of the need to start replacing
the ageing Super Guppys in 1995.
"The choice was either to go for an
existing transport, or for something com
pletely new," says Drager. In the former
category, there was the Antonov An-124
and the six-engined An-225, while, from
the USA, the choice included the Boeing
747, Lockheed C-5 and the McDonnell
Douglas C-17. "We also looked at conver
sions," says Drager. The Boeing 767,
Ilyushin 11-86, and the Airbus A300B4 and
A300-600R were all considered.
"After a while, it became clear that we
could not use an existing aircraft, because
there wasn't enough space in any of them,"
says Drager, "and we didn't want to make
any of the Airbus parts smaller because it
would have complicated the workshare
between the partners, and added greatly to
the cost of replacing the Super Guppy." An
idea to use a piggy-back system was also
discarded, because the necessary conver
sion would have been too expensive. "It
was also impractical," adds Drager.
BOEING OPTION
Despite looking seriously at the offer from
Boeing to convert the 767, the consortium,
perhaps unsurprisingly, opted eventually
for the Airbus A300-600R. "We were wor
ried that Boeing would not have given us
enough technical information," says
Drager. "In the end, the Airbus solution
was the best all-round proposal from the
cost point of view."
In 1991, SATIC was formed as a
Groupement d'Interet Economique, with the
specific task of managing the design, devel
opment, production, delivery and product
support of the Super Transporter.
Membership is split 50:50 between
Aerospatiale and Deutsche Aerospace
Airbus.
SATIC's first task was to carry out pre-
design of the aircraft. Detail design was
then performed by the main partners,
while SATIC selected subcontractors, and
created work packages. This left the mem
bers of the Airbus consortium responsible
for areas involving their own components,
while the subcontractors received packages
created by SATIC, such as the cylindrical
upper shell (CASA), and hydraulic system
(Dornier). "There are 15 systems and mis
cellaneous work packages," says Drager,
"and 11 structural packages."
France's Sogerma is responsible for final
assembly of the Super Transporter, which
takes place at its own hangar in Toulouse.
Under the arrangement with Airbus,
Sogerma acquires a complete airframe,
minus unneeded items such as the cabin
interior. Sections are then supplied from
the partner's production lines, prepared
according to specific production require
ments. The fuselage centre section, for
example, is supplied from Aerospatiale's St
Nazaire base with the top section "clipped"
to the lower, in order to avoid stressing the
component during transport before the
wings are attached. The top section will be
re-used in this way to transport other cen
tre sections, says Drager.
Similarly, the forward and rear fuselage
sections are supplied with the "natural" top
removed, leaving intact those fuselage pan
els which extend above the conversion
level. Sogerma then uses a specially devel
oped tool to accurately cut the panels to
the conversion level. The new upper sec
tion is then joined to the lower by means of
a longitudinal strap developed by Sogerma
and Socea. P38»-
Why replace the Super Guppy?
The Super Guppy has been at the core of Airbus' unique method of assem
bling aircraft since 1971, when the first
Boeing 377 was converted by Aero-
spacelines in Santa Barbara, California,
USA. The second joined the fleet in 1973
and the third and fourth, which were con
verted by UTA, joined in 1982 and 1983.
The first aircraft will reach the end of its
service life in 1996, the last in 1999.
While it has per
formed its job well, the
Super Guppy was based
on a 1953-era aircraft.
"Reliability was always
our worry," says SATIC
president Udo Drager,
"and the cost of mainten
ance is quite high, and is
increasing all the time."
He adds that the Super
Guppy transport system
quickly reached capacity,
so that there was little
room for flexibility and
growth in the production
rate. "We couldn't build
any more and we always
knew that, if one of the
aircraft was lost, the entire Airbus pro
duction system would be endangered."
With the sudden increase in orders for
Airbuses in 1990, the consortium consid
ered leasing an Antonov An-124 to cater
for what would have become a produc
tion rate virtually double that at the time.
"Then the orders dropped off and the rate
went down. — but we had learnt our les
son," says Drager.
Four Super Guppys form the backbone of Airbus' transportation
FLIGHT INTERNA TIONAL 25-31 May, 1994 33